PROPOSED CHARTER SCHOOL AIMS FOR EVEN HIGHER GOALS

GOALS-The pink and red hearts and hand-lettered I love GOALS on 9-year-old Meztly Careolla s GOALS Cadets service T-shirt touched an emotional chord with a packed Anaheim City School District Board hearing room on Jan. 13. Meztly s picture was featured as part of a GOALS -Growth Opportunities through Athletics, Learning & Service - presentation to advance plans for a GOALS Academy public charter school, along with other positive submissions and comments. The GOALS proposal envisions a small, free public charter school, operated with credentialed teachers, but using additional enrichment, field trips, service learning opportunities, increased arts, sports and athletics, and a high percentage of enrolled students participating in free after- school education and activities. If all goes to plan and careful, constructive collaboration with the local school district proceeds, opening would be as soon as August 2015. The GOALS Academy as conceived will be a kindergarten through eigwith enrollment open to children in the local school districts. The GOALS hope is that the relatively small school anticipated would enroll up to 300 youngsters and help relieve severel mover crowding at the nearby Horace Mann School located just blocks away from the core GOALS facilities in north central Anaheim Along with the expected boutique nature of the school would be the integration of substantial additional day time, after- school and community learning programs to bolster the development experience of students and their families. Community leaders, educators and GOALS alumni spoke for more than an hour about the opportunities, virtues and values planned as part of the initiative. Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, who mentioned he was appearing not in his role as mayor but rather as a private citizen who cared, spoke passionately about the track record of GOALS and the potential that the program had to launch a first-class educational experience through a public charter school. I love in GOALS too, said Tait. And I have believed in them since they started almost 20 years a g o Anaheim City School District Board members, led by President Jose Moreno, were especially gracious and welcoming, as were senior district staff members in hosting the hearing. On another positive note, GOALS emphasized a substantial planning grant from the California Department of Education that would enable a smooth implementation process to open the GOALS Academy. I never really knew what being in a caring family was until I joined GOALS, said Frank Cardona, a program coach and alumnus. I cannot wait to see how great our extended family can be with this school. Israel Ramos, another GOALS alumnus who is attending Cal State Fullerton and who began participating in GOALS when he was 9, may have summed up the crowd s hopes best. If I have done so much with my life already thanks to showing up once a week in GOALS, imagine what children ugh eighth grade will do with theirs? - GOALS is a not-for-profit youth-serving program headquarteredin Ana